V. God asks Noah whether all is ready. Noah replies that all is fully prepared. He is commanded to enter the ark, for God tells him that he will send a rain to destroy all flesh. Noah stows all safely in the ark. Seven days are passed. The deep begins to swell, banks are broken down, and the clouds burst. It rains for forty days, and the flood rises, and flows over the woods and fields. All must drown. The water enters the houses. Each woman with her bairns flees to the hills. The rain never ceases. The valleys are filled. People flock to the mountains. Some swim for their lives. Others roar for fear. Animals of all kinds run to the hills. All pray for mercy. God’s mercy is passed from them. Each sees that he must sink. Friends take leave of one another. Forty days have gone by, and all are destroyed. All rot in the mud, except Noah and his family, who are safe in the ark. The ark is lifted as high as the clouds, and is driven about, without mast, bowline, cables, anchors, or sail to guide its course. At the mercy of the winds. Oft it rolled around and reared on end. The age of the patriarch Noah. Duration of the flood. The completeness of the destruction. God remembers those in the ark. He causes a wind to blow, and closes the lakes and wells, and the great deep. The ark settles on Mount Ararat. Noah beholds the bare earth. He opens his window and sends out the raven to seek dry land. The raven “croaks for comfort” on finding carrion. He fills his belly with the foul flesh. The lord of the ark curses the raven, and sends out the dove. The bird wanders about the whole day. Finding no rest, she returns about eventide to Noah. Noah again sends out the dove. VI. The dove returns with an olive branch in her beak. This was a token of peace and reconciliation. Joy reigns in the ark. The people therein laugh and look thereout. God permits Noah and his sons to leave the ark. Noah offers sacrifice to God. It is pleasing to Him that “all speeds or spoils.” God declares that He will never destroy the world for the sin of man. That summer and winter shall never cease. Nor night nor day, nor the new years. God blesses every beast. Each fowl takes its flight. Each fish goes to the flood. Each beast makes for the plain. Wild worms wriggle to their abodes in the earth. The fox goes to the woods. Harts to the heath, and hares to the gorse. Lions and leopards go to the lakes. Eagles and hawks to the high rocks. The four ‘frekes’ take the empire. Behold what woe God brought on mankind for their hateful deeds! Beware of the filth of the flesh. “One speck of a spot” will ruin us in the sight of God. The beryl is clean and sound,--it has no seam.